by Elsa Jade
“Really? That’s just…rude!”
He pulled back enough to see her cheeks flushed bright red, and she refused to meet his eyes. Hers glittered and he relented a little, reaching out to tuck a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. He wanted her something fierce, his jeans painful, so tight in the groin that he’d probably have zipper marks the length of his dick.
“Rude? Rude is getting off in my shower,” he growled, the wolf inside still pissed about that. “If you were in need, you should have told me, darlin’. I’d have helped you.”
Helped her, and helped himself because he was rapidly building a case of blue balls.
Her head whipped up and she speared him with a hard gaze. “Helped me? What…a pity fuck? Thanks hotshot, but no thanks. A girl has some fucking pride, you know.”
With that, she pushed past him, far more strength in her tiny frame than he expected. He was still staring, mouth open and dick hard, when she slammed the door to the spare bedroom hard enough to rattle the damn thing in the frame.
“Fuck,” he muttered to the empty air. She was going to make a hell of an alpha female.
Chapter Five
‡
Of all the arrogant, pain in the ass, convinced of his own fucking importance men.
Ce was still pissed over the encounter the next day. She’d stormed into her room and clambered into bed, determined to seethe and plot Mr. Pity Fuck’s demise in hundreds of horrible ways. It hadn’t happened. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she’d fallen asleep and hadn’t woken until the next morning, to the sight of sunlight streaming through the curtains.
He’d been in the room at some point because on the dresser stool there was a small pile of clothes. Her clothes, now laundered and neatly pressed. Her eyes widened in surprise. Had he even… He had. He’d even pressed her panties, the cotton wrinkle free. What the hell kind of guy ironed panties? At doesn’t-exist-o’clock in the morning?
A keeper, the little voice in her head pointed out but she shoved it to the back of her mind. Oh no, they weren’t going down that route. No way, no how. Not with how Riley looked. Hot as hell, with a body like that…if she mentally categorized him as a keeper, her ovaries would have her married off and pregnant within a heartbeat, no matter what happened. Her ovaries and reality were not always on the same planet.
The rest of the morning passed slowly. Far from having him dog her every footstep, she’d found herself alone in the house, her host only returning as the clock turned noon to tell her they were going out. Not that her time alone had helped her. The jerk didn’t have a landline she could use to call Tom. What kind of person didn’t have a landline or a computer?
“Are you always this attentive with your prisoners?” she asked as he pulled the big, black truck into the parking lot of what looked like a bar, and parked away from the other vehicles. “I could have run off or anything today.”
“And where would you have gone?” He cut the engine and turned to her, one eyebrow raised. “We don’t have a coach route through town and everyone knows you’re a guest of the pack.”
Huh. Put like that, it made sense. “I could have turned or something, shredded your furniture, then gone on a rampage, killing people. There’s a school nearby, right? I heard the kids playing earlier. How would that have gone down?” she challenged, sliding out of the vehicle at the same time he did and slamming the passenger door. “If I’d munched down on some kiddies, it would have been all your fault.”
Ha! That should take the wind out of the arrogant asshat’s sails. No such luck. Instead, he laughed. Actually fucking laughed as he walked toward the building. It had Honey’s Bar and Grill in big letters on the front.
“Hey, douchebag,” she called after him, hurrying to catch up. Fuck, he had long legs. “What’s so funny?”
“You are, darlin’.” He grinned as he held open the door for her. She resisted the temptation to kick him in the shins as she passed. It was childish and beneath her. Didn’t stop her flicking the door back into his face though. Accident. Honest.
“Really?” She hoped her dry tone of voice adequately conveyed how not funny she found the thought of killing kids.
“Yeah. Adorable.” He came up behind her, hand lightly on the small of her back as he negotiated a path through the tables. Even at midday, the bar had a healthy number of customers, muted conversation, and the smell of coffee.
“You have a sick sense of humor then,” she told him, selecting a stool, managing to climb onto it without too much hassle. “I don’t find putting kids in danger funny or adorable in the least.”
“Hey, Katie.” Riley smiled at the girl behind the bar. “Two coffees, please, sweet stuff.”
“No problem, handsome. Coming right up!”
Instantly, Ce’s attention focused on the girl. With a smile at Riley, she twirled away and started doing something complicated with the big coffee machine behind her. Small and curvy, she was so pretty she made Ce’s teeth ache, and like Ce, she was “normal.” Not the leggy, supermodel type she assumed a man who looked like Riley would have on his arm, but stunning all the same. Crap. Her mood took a nosedive. She could discount supermodels, there was no way on earth she could compete with them, but when the normal, curvy peeps were cute as hell like that? She couldn’t compete. Bitch.
“Jealous much?” Riley’s smug voice sounded by her ear. Anger surged. Forget wanting to tear the girl to pieces, she wanted to smoosh Riley’s perfect nose all over his perfect freaking face.
“Jealous? Me? Not at all. Why would I be?” She ignored him as Katie slid a huge mug of coffee over the counter toward her. Grabbing it with relief, she buried her nose in it and breathed the fragrant steam.
“No reason, no reason at all.” He switched his attention to small, curvy, and stunning behind the bar. “Thanks, Katie. How’s Joey taking you being down here? Can’t be easy with you guys being newly mated.”
As he said it, he slid a little sideways glance at Ce. She sipped her coffee and pointedly ignored him. Katie was mated. Great, now she felt like a bitch for wanting to scratch the girl’s eyes out.
“Oh, you know dragons. He huffed and puffed a lot.” Katie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “But, he’s got wings, it’s not like he can’t get down here…and Honey needs me with the hoglets imminent.”
“True, she’s going to have her hands full. Honey is mated to Katie’s pack alpha. They’re werehedgehogs,” Riley filled Ce in with a little smile.
“Pygmy werehedgehogs,” Katie corrected, then grinned and made a scratching motion with her hands. “Small and ferocious, hear me roar!”
“Oh, wow.” Ce blinked in surprise. She hadn’t considered there were other kinds of shifters in Stratton. And werehedgehogs? That was a new one. “And your mate… Joey? Is he a hedgehog as well?”
Katie’s expression was open and understanding. “No, he’s a dragon. A black,” she said proudly, as though that should mean something to Ce.
At that moment Riley’s phone rang and he excused himself, striding to the door to take his call outside. She watched him go for a moment, then turned back to Katie. “I’m sorry, a black?”
The other woman seemed to be constantly in motion, spraying and wiping down the counter as she answered. “Yeah, one of the twelve. You’re new to this shifter deal, aren’t you?”
Ce winced. “Yeah, is it that obvious?”
Katie laughed, a soft, tinkling sound. “Yeah. ’Fraid so. Okay, so the dragons are ruled by a white queen. Who is by the way totally awesomesauce. Me and her, we’re like this…” She held up crossed fingers. “Then there’s the council of twelve. All black dragons, the best fighters they have. They’re like the army and the police rolled into one. My Joey’s one of them.”
“He sounds scary” was all Ce could think to say. What she really wanted to ask was about the…logistics. Hedgehog and dragon? Come on, surely that was never going to work?
“Nah, he’s a complete walkover.” Katie looked up as a chair
behind Ce scraped on the floor. Another customer headed to the bar. Seeing her chance, Ce leaned forward.
“I know this is a little cheeky, but is there any chance I could borrow your cell to make a quick-quick call? I left mine at Riley’s…” She hadn’t, but Katie didn’t need to know she was supposed to be incommunicado. She seemed to think Ce was here of her own free will.
“Yeah, sure. Here.” Distracted, Katie reached into her back pocket and slid a small cell over the bar. “Hey there, handsome. What can I getcha?”
Ce tried to hide her triumph as she grabbed the phone. Glancing at the screen she noted it was fully charged with excellent signal before punching in Tom’s number from memory. She’d always been good with phone numbers, except her own for some reason, so not having her own cell on her didn’t make a difference.
It rang twice before Tom picked up, his voice crisp and professional. “Detective Pineton.”
“Tom. It’s me.” She kept her voice low, flicking a glance at Katie. “How you doing?”
“Shit, Ce? Where the hell are you? Your parents are going fucking nuts and the captain’s being a dick on where you are. I’ve even been down to the local furry barn, fuckers won’t let me in. Are you okay?”
She’d never heard Tom speak so much or so quickly. “Yeah, yeah…I’m good. I’m not in the city anymore. The furry we dropped? Had a brother in the pack. They moved me into the sticks. Some place called Stra—”
A low snarl was the only warning before the cell was lifted out of her hand.
“What the fuck!” She whirled around to find Riley behind her. He lifted a finger for quiet and put the cell to his ear.
“I don’t care who this is,” he growled, his voice far lower than she’d heard it before. A bright ring of amber showed in his eyes. Belatedly Ce realized the entire bar was so silent, even the sound of a pin dropping would be deafening. “But you’d be best to forget you got this call and anything you heard. Understand me?”
He paused for the moment, and Ce could hear Tom shouting on the other end of the line.
“I don’t care who you are,” Riley said, eyes hard as he looked at her. “Right now, Ce is in our care. Any attempt to remove her will go badly, for you.”
Clicking the phone off, he gave it back to Katie. She bit her lip. “Riley, I’m really sorry…I didn’t realize she was on lockdown…”
“No worries, sweet stuff. You weren’t to know.” Riley flashed her the ghost of a smile. One that disappeared when he looked back at Ce. “We’re leaving.”
Grabbing her upper arm, he didn’t give her much of a choice and marched her out. She didn’t bother asking for help from any of the other customers. It was plain to see they all knew Riley and weren’t going to tangle with him. Besides, she wouldn’t want them to. The only people likely to help wouldn’t be werewolves and there was no way she’d put ordinary humans in that kind of danger. Her cop blood wouldn’t allow it.
“Asshole.” She managed to snatch her arm free of his grasp when they were through the door. “I bruise easily, you fucking jerk.”
Tears of anger welled up, threatening to spill over onto her cheeks. Rather than let him see and think her weak, she stormed off toward his truck. Running was out of the question. He’d already proved that he could run her down, and no one in this damn town would help her. She just had to hope she’d given Tom enough info to work it out and find her. The quickest she could get away from Captain Furry Asshole still wouldn’t be quick enough.
She didn’t make it inside the truck, though. The moment her hand grazed the handle, she was spun around and slammed none-too-gently against the side of the vehicle. Before she could escape, she found herself pinned by a hot, hard male body.
Her gasp was cut off as his mouth crashed down over hers. She tried to bite him, but a wave of heat and need hit her, one so hard her knees weakened under her. Rather than her nails raking his face, her arms wound around his neck, and she parted her lips to give him access.
He growled, the soft sound almost a purr, and pressed closer. His cock, long and hard in his jeans, pressed into the softness of her belly. Insistent. Rigid. She ran her fingers over the velvet of his hair and sucked on his tongue. How did he do this to her? Piss her off one moment, then the next, all she could think about was climbing him like a damn tree?
None of that mattered. Nothing mattered but his lips on hers and his hands on her body, caressing the curve of her waist and dipping beneath her top to stroke the skin of her back. The simple touch stole her breath and made her heart race. Something moved within her, as though something deep inside stirred in its sleep, stretching its claws and making demands.
His hand stroked higher under her top, spreading out until it spanned her waist, his thumb brushing underneath her breast. At the same time he stroked his tongue along hers in a hot, wet kiss that should have been illegal for the things it did to her. She groaned into his mouth, needing more…needing anything…
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Riley, will you get a damn room!” a male voice yelled across the parking lot.
Ce snatched her lips away from Riley, pushing him back. A guy lounged in the doorway of the bar, arms folded and a big grin on his face. Cheeks flushed, Ce scuttled to hide in the truck as Riley shouted back.
“Yeah, right! Just call it payback, Blake, for when we all had to watch you drool after Honey!”
*
Riley was pissed with her. Well pissed.
Ce bit her lip as she watched the big, black truck roar out of the parking lot and onto the street.
“Well,” the woman next to her commented. “I think you got under his skin. For sure. Don’t worry about it. He’s a male wolf. They’re all asses.”
Ce slid a look sideways. Kelli Daniels, Riley’s sister, was as far from the image she’d formed in her head as it was possible to get. He’d told her (well, more snarled at her) that he couldn’t trust her, so he was dropping her off with his sister while he attended to pack business. Being the ruling female alpha, Ce imagined an eastern European shot-putter with bulging muscles, amber eyes, and fangs. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, Kelli had amber eyes, but just a small ring around the irises. Other than that, she was…normal. And heavily pregnant.
“They are?” She couldn’t help the query. So far her experience of wolves had been the one who’d bitten her, the asshole who’d brought her here, and Riley. She didn’t count Max, Kelli’s mate, since she’d seen him all of thirty seconds before she’d made a run for it.
“Oh, yeah. Like totally. The lot of them think with the little head, if you know what I mean. And believe me, once territorial wolf urges get involved, they can be even more of a dick.”
Kelli turned toward the building behind them, a nail salon which made Ce blink a little.
“You get your nails done?” Suddenly she had an image of a wolf with a full French manicure and extensions. Mind you, blue glitter could look cool…even on a wolf. “Don’t they cause issues when you shift?”
Kelli smiled as they entered. “No extensions. Just polish. Difficult for me to shift at the moment anyway, so I like to take advantage of it while I can.”
That Ce understood. She followed the female wolf into the nail bar where she seemed to be well-known and liked. Within minutes, they were both settled in throne-like recliners as their nails were worked on.
“So, Riley is your brother?” Oh hell, just how retarded did that sound? She might as well announce her interest on the Internet. “I mean, there’s not much of a family resemblance.”
Kelli chuckled. “Yeah, knucklehead’s my little brother. Why, he been giving you trouble? Max filled me in on your situation. You’re a cop, right? Bitten on duty?”
“Nothing I can’t deal with.”
It wasn’t a lie, not exactly. She could more than handle one hot guy who kissed like a sex god. Probably by stripping naked and throwing herself at him. “Yeah. I’m a cop, but I wouldn’t say I was bitten so much as in the wrong place at the wro
ng time.”
She leaned back and sighed in contentment. She’d always been too busy to get her nails done, but this really was rather nice.
“Really? How so?” Kelli’s voice was full of curiosity, and she was nice, unlike her hot, sexy asshole of a brother.
“Tom, that’s my partner, and I were called to a restaurant break-in. One of the quieter areas of town. To be honest, we thought it was the guy’s alarm on the fritz again…he’d already been warned about it. But when we got there, the place was trashed and there was a wolf in the kitchen. Bast…Uhm,” she cleared her throat. “It attacked and we weren’t prepped or loaded for wolf. Managed to fight it off—”
“You fought off a shifted wolf?” Kelli whistled between her teeth. “Holy shit, girl, remind me not to piss you off, ’kay?”
Amusement bubbled up and spilled over. “Yeah, right. It was just a fluke. For some reason the chef had some kind of silver knife. It had fallen onto the floor under one of the cabinets. As soon as I…well, you know…the thing screamed, went batshit changing forms, collapsed and died.” She grimaced. “Unfortunately on the way down, its fang got me in the leg. On the day I didn’t take my anti-fuuuurr… Shit. Look, do you guys get pissed off at being called furries?”
Kelli snorted, lifting her hand to admire her newly filed nails. “Only the old stick in the muds. Personally, it’s never bothered me. I like my fur just fine.” She grinned at Ce. “And I like you, so if anyone has a problem with you using that term, you just tell ’em to come and talk to me. Okay?”
Ce breathed a sigh of relief. Kelli seemed to be a kindred spirit. In fact, if they’d met under other circumstances she could see herself and the other woman being close friends. She slid Kelli a sideways glance as the girl finished up on her nails. “So would this be a good time to admit I call your brother Captain Furry Asshole?”
“Ha!” Kelli’s bark of laughter made the nail technicians jump, but the tears rolling down her cheeks assured them (and Ce) that it wasn’t a bark of anger. “Captain Furry Asshole! Oh, that’s awesome. I gotta tell Max that…yes, thank you, hun. They’re fantastic,” she said to the girl in front of her and pointed toward the credit card she’d left on the top of her purse when they’d sat down.
